FANTASTIC SCIENCE FICTION

FANTASTIC SCIENCE FICTION ,
was an American digest-size fantasy and science fiction magazine,
published from 1952 to 1980. It was founded by Ziff-Davis as a fantasy
companion to Amazing Stories. Early sales were good, and Ziff-Davis quickly
decided to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest, and to cease publication
of their other science fiction pulp, Fantastic Adventures. Within a few years
sales fell, and Howard Browne, the editor, was forced to switch the focus to
science fiction rather than fantasy. Browne lost interest in the magazine as a
result and the magazine generally ran poor quality fiction in the mid-1950s,
under Browne and his successor, Paul W. Fairman.

At the end of the 1950s Cele Goldsmith took over as editor of both Fantastic
and Amazing, and quickly invigorated the magazines, bringing in many new
writers and making them, in the words of one science fiction historian, the
"best-looking and brightest" magazines in the field.[1] She helped to nurture
the early careers of writers such as Roger Zelazny and Ursula K. Le Guin, but
was unable to increase circulation, and in 1965 the magazines were sold to
Sol Cohen, who hired Joseph Wrzos as editor and switched to a reprint-only
policy. This was financially successful, but brought Cohen into conflict with
the newly formed Science Fiction Writers of America. After a turbulent period
at the end of the 1960s, Ted White became editor and the reprints were phased
out.

White worked hard to make the magazine successful, introducing artwork from
artists who had made their names in comics, and working with new authors such
as Gordon Eklund. His budget for fiction was low, but he was occasionally able
to find good stories from well-known writers which had been rejected by the
other markets. Circulation continued to decline and in 1978 Cohen sold out his
half of the business to his partner, Arthur Bernhard. White resigned shortly
afterwards, and was replaced by Elinor Mavor, but within two years Bernhard
decided to close down Fantastic, merging it with Amazing, which had always had
slightly higher circulation.